17/09/2026

LYFE THURSDAY | SEPT 17, 2026

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MOVIE REVIEW

Ű BY MARK MATHEN VICTOR

T HE Blade Runner films, the Alien franchise, Black Hawk Down , Gladiator and American Gangster , among many others: Ridley Scott has always been one to deliver the hits. However, the legendary filmmaker’s list of amazing films is rivalled equally with how notoriously underwhelming Scott’s “in-between” films are and now two years after Gladiator II , the filmmaker has added The Dog Stars to his steaming dogpile of mediocre films. Set an indeterminate period of time after a pandemic wipes out most of humanity, The Dog Stars sees Hig (Jacob Elordi) and his dog Jasper navigate a barren Colorado on foot and in his small plane. The duo live with Bangley (Josh Brolin), a former Marine, on an abandoned airfield. After a series of events involving a roving cult from South America leads to tragedy, Hig meets Pops (Guy Pearce) and Cima (Margaret Qualley), a father and daughter living in isolation on their farm. The film ultimately boils down to “Hig goes to A. Something happens. Hig goes to B. Something else happens. Hig is forced to go to C. Inevitably, something else happens”, and this is where the film’s biggest downfall rests. Story without a hook The Dog Stars has a poor script and no amount of talent in the director’s

The rug is quickly pulled out from under the feet of Hig’s story with Jasper. – HANDOUT PICS with his dog abruptly ends, while his partnership with Bangley is relegated to an afterthought once Pops and Cima are brought into the narrative. His relationship with Cima comes across as superficial – lonely man meets lonely, sheltered woman in the post-apocalypse – before sparks fly purely due to shared trauma. Pops is a third-wheel the entire time. The Dog Stars would not be flailing around if thought was put into the characters to make audiences care about them. Familiar ground, little tension If there are any decent sequences at all in between all the plane flying, one can found when the film becomes a cross between Zero Dark Thirty and Sicario – when Bangley has to ward off a roving cult of South Americans that raid the airfield at night. It is the most impressive part before the narrative is railroaded back to more flying, followed by a very ham-fisted attempt at replicating Fallout , as though Scott saw the series once and decided to try his hand at it. This too ends clunkily before The Dog Stars reverts back to the plane. Were scenes from the film animated into game-like sequences, they would fit right into the thousands of cheap, heavily monetised Chinese post apocalyptic survival mobile games. More known for films with rich, colourful characters weaved into smooth, fluid narratives, The Dog Stars is a puzzling aberration in Scott’s film catalogue. If his name was not attached to it, it would be hard to figure out who the director behind one of 2026’s most generic films is.

Ridley Scott’s post apocalyptic snoozefest The yellow plane is The Dog Stars ’ third main character.

0 Director: Ridley Scott 0 Cast: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce E-VALUE 5 ACTING 7 PLOT 2

o The Dog Stars strands strong cast in generic tale that falls far short of filmmaker’s best work

shots of a tiny yellow plane flying across mountains and CGI-heavy backdrops before anything happens. Then, whenever the story picks up, it begins to stall like an old plane engine as whatever is happening on screen feels largely detached because there is no true emotional hook that is properly planted and is given time to bloom. Initially setting up the film to appear as though it would revolve around them, Hig’s relationship

seat, nor in front or behind the camera is able to save it. Screenwriter Mark L. Smith, the same writer behind The Revenant , cannot be blamed either, as the film is based on a novel rather than being original material. What works on paper will not necessarily translate to film is an age-old adage and it is certainly true with The Dog Stars and its source material, where audiences have to endure at least 40% of the film being

Bangley is the most interesting character in the film.

South Park changes name in dig at Trump’s renaming bid

ANIMATED satire South Park said recently it was changing its name to South America , in an apparent dig at US President Donald Trump’s bid to rename swathes of the world. The announcement from the Emmy Award-winning show comes after Trump’s recent efforts to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America and the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Following the order by Trump, who has also mused about changing the US state of New Mexico to New America, Apple and Google altered the way the bodies of water are labelled for US users of their maps – something show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone took aim at. “Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of South Park to South America ,” said the show’s

official X account. The pair also took a shot at Paramount, which is now owned by David Ellison’s Skydance Corporation, despite the reported US$1.5 billion (RM6.1 billion) deal they signed last year. “We especially want to thank our parent company Paramount – a Skydance Capitulation,” the account wrote. The show customarily known as South Park is set in small-town America and known for crude language and lampooning hot button social issues. Since Trump’s return to the White House, it has mercilessly poked fun at him and routinely depicts him as being in a loveless marriage with Satan, while a toady JD Vance plots to evict the devil from the matrimonial bed. – AFP

Trump has been a frequent target of ridicule for the Emmy-winning show. – COMEDYCENTRALPIC